Watch this mini-documentary detailing the story of Ghanaian Highlife

Music

5 August 2019

Produced by Analysis Lost, 'Black Stars of Highlife' is a mini-documentary that details the story of Ghanaian Highlife music. Interviewing famous faces like C.K. Mann and Ebo Taylor, the video describes the scene, detailing the genre’s origins, its main players, and how Highlife actually impacted Western music.

Influenced by colonial foxtrot and waltz, Ghanaian musicians utilised African rhythms to create a new sound. Labelled high life for its high cultured origins, the genre swept Africa, later splitting into two distinct offshoots: dance band highlife and guitar band highlife.

Now, with Afrobeat and funk becoming more popular thanks to eclectic crate-diggers and producers like Martin van Aalst and Soundway's Miles Cleret, reissued albums have become commonplace, boosting the genre’s popularity further.